PODCAST

News - South China Morning Post

All the latest breaking news from Hong Kong, China and around the world

All Episodes

Trump boosts Nasa plans for moon base with nuclear...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that moves to protect Nasa’s Artemis space programme, which aims to return astronauts to the moon with an eye towards building a permanent lunar presence. The directive reinforces Nasa’s current plans for sending Americans back to the moon by 2028, and for Americans to begin establishing the outpost by 2030. It also reaffirms Nasa’s plans to use space nuclear power, including readying nuclear reactors for launch by 2030. Thursday’s order

2025 marked the end of Pax Americana’s unipolar moment

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

Historians are likely to point to 2025 as the watershed in China’s 21st century ascent, a year in which the People’s Liberation Army’s power projection matured across all domains, resetting the global balance of power. This seismic shift is underscored by an unmistakable admission: the US has formally acknowledged the limits of its global reach in its new national security strategy and begun a strategic recalibration away from undisputed hegemony. These military and strategic realities are...

US highlights Panama security ties as China-linked...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

The United States on Thursday underscored its maritime security partnership with Panama, as a high-stakes dispute involving China, US investors and a Hong Kong conglomerate continues to cloud the future ownership of key ports at the Panama Canal. US Ambassador Kevin Cabrera boarded the US Coast Guard cutter Alert during a port visit in Panama City, praising joint operations ranging from counter-narcotics missions to search-and-rescue efforts carried out with Panama’s Ministry of Public...

World-famous Kennedy Centre renamed to honour Trump

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

US President Donald Trump’s hand-picked board voted on Thursday to rename Washington’s leading performing arts centre as the Trump-Kennedy Centre, the White House said, in a move that was quickly denounced as a “disgrace” by the Democratic leader of the House, who is on the board. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the vote on social media, attributing it to the “unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building. Not only from the standpoint of its...

Russia deploys nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

Belarus’ authoritarian president said on Thursday that Russia had deployed its latest nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile system to the country, a move that comes as talks to end the war in Ukraine have entered a crucial phase. President Alexander Lukashenko said the Oreshnik, an intermediate-range ballistic missile system, arrived in the country on Wednesday and is entering combat duty. He did not say how many missiles have been deployed or give any other details. Russian President Vladimir

New Epstein photos show Lolita quotes written on...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

House Democrats released several dozen more photos on Thursday from the estate of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, showing his associations with the rich and famous, as the US Department of Justice faces a deadline to release many of its case files on the late financier by the end of the week. The photos released Thursday were among more than 95,000 that the House Oversight Committee has received after issuing a subpoena for the photos that Epstein had in his possession before he

Brazil’s Lula vows to veto bill slashing Bolsonaro’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday that he would veto a bill that could significantly reduce the 27-year prison sentence of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was arrested in November for attempting a coup. The Senate passed the bill late on Wednesday, following approval by the Chamber of Deputies. “With all due respect to the National Congress, when it reaches my desk, I will veto it,” Lula told journalists in Brasilia, noting that those who committed crimes

Retired Nascar driver Greg Biffle and family among 7...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

Former racing driver Greg Biffle and members of his family were among seven people who died in a plane crash on Thursday in North Carolina, state police said. The business jet erupted into flames when it hit the ground while trying to land at Statesville Regional Airport, about 72km (45 miles) north of Charlotte. Flight records show the plane was registered to a company run by Biffle. “Although the post-crash fire prevents us from releasing a definitive list of the occupants at this time, it

Brian Walshe, who googled how to dispose of body,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

A Boston-area man was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison for the grisly murder of his wife, who disappeared nearly three years ago and whose body has never been found. Brian Walshe, 50, was convicted on Monday of first-degree murder in the killing of Ana Walshe, 39. The sentence carries no possibility of parole. He pleaded guilty in November to misleading police and illegally disposing of a body after admitting he had dismembered her body and disposed of it in a rubbish bin. He said he

Japan PM office source hints at need for nuclear...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

A source within Japan’s prime minister’s office said on Thursday that the country needs nuclear weapons, remarks that deviate from the country’s long-standing non-nuclear principles and could trigger backlash at home and abroad.“I think we should possess nuclear weapons,” said the source, who is involved in devising security policy under the government led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, while also indicating that such a move is unrealistic. The remarks came as Takaichi, known for her

As Trump upends US foreign policy, analysts see fresh...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

It has been a turbulent year for the fraught US-China relationship. In the fourth part of a series looking back at the events of 2025, we examine the impacts of Trump’s foreign policy on global geopolitics. As the administration of US President Donald Trump ends its first year, expect the unabashed disrupter to continue applying a wrecking ball to long-standing US national security architecture, threatening global stability and jolting long-time allies, with China a major beneficiary, say...

US government admits liability for fatal Black Hawk...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

The US Justice Department said late on Wednesday the federal government was liable in the fatal January 29 collision of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines regional jet that killed 67 people near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It was the deadliest plane crash on American soil in more than two decades. The government admitted it “owed a duty of care to plaintiffs, which it breached, thereby proximately causing the tragic accident” and that the pilots of the Army...

Philippines to get up to US$3.5 billion defence aid...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

Washington is set to deepen its defence support for the Philippines after approving billions of dollars for a loan and a grant to its Southeast Asian ally next year to counter what an American senator has called “serious threats” from China and its partners. Philippine defence officials have welcomed the approval by the House and Senate in Washington as further evidence of the US commitment to their alliance, even as analysts caution that the bill under the US National Defence Authorisation

Beijing condemns Washington’s landmark US$11 billion...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

Beijing has condemned Washington for its decision to sell about US$11 billion in weapons to Taiwan, calling it a grave violation of its sovereignty and a dangerous signal to separatist forces. Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua said on Thursday that the sale amounted to “flagrant interference in China’s internal affairs”. Chen said it also “gravely violates” the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques, particularly the August 17 communique

China confirms issuing of first general licences for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

Beijing confirmed on Thursday that it has begun granting general licences with lengthier terms for exports of rare earth elements to foreign companies, though business groups said more guidance was needed on the policy’s implementation. “With the accumulation of relevant export compliance experience, some exporters have initially met the basic requirements to apply for general licences,” said He Yadong, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce (Mofcom), at a press conference. “To my

Power outage briefly leaves 5,000 Hong Kong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

A power outage briefly plunged Hong Kong’s Kowloon City, a densely populated neighbourhood, into darkness on Thursday, with traffic lights malfunctioning, people trapped in lifts and about 5,000 households affected. Police said they received a report at 4.18pm that people were trapped in a lift at Kowloon City Plaza and that the shopping centre was in total darkness. The case was later classified as “assistance not required”. At 5.04pm, another report was filed with the force about...

SenseTime pushes open-source AI model to provide a...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

Chinese artificial intelligence pioneer SenseTime has open-sourced a “world model” and kicked off its foray into the burgeoning field of embodied intelligence by releasing its first robotic dog. The Hong Kong-listed AI firm’s new venture, Ace Robotics, on Thursday released Kairos 3.0, an open-source model that simulates the physical world, and a developer platform called “KaiWu” that supports embodied intelligence applications. “Ace Robotics will promote the large-scale commercialisation of...

China slams EU subsidy probes as ‘egregious’ and...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

China’s Ministry of Commerce has expressed strong opposition to recent European Union investigations into Chinese companies and vowed to use necessary means to defend their rights. “The European Union has recently launched a series of Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) investigations targeting Chinese enterprises … such actions are egregious, with clear targeting and discriminatory intent,” ministry spokesman He Yadong said during a press conference on Thursday. Last week, Brussels launched

China’s youth-unemployment rate eases, new rival in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. As trade deficit mounts, is EU offering China what it wants to buy? Facing an ever-increasing trade deficit with China, Europe has limited options to balance the situation in the short term even though it still holds an edge in key sectors including pharmaceuticals, machinery and components, analysts said. 2. China FM Wang Yi reaffirms Beijing’s backing

China’s CATL marks trailblazing deployment of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/18

Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s largest maker of electric vehicle (EV) batteries, has started deploying humanoid robots at scale within its Zhongzhou production base in Luoyang, a city in central Henan province. The company on Wednesday described its deployment at scale as a “world’s first”, as humanoid robots built by start-up Spirit AI performed complex tasks with speeds that matched those of skilled human workers. Spirit AI’s Xiaomo robots have been assigned to plug in...

21,911 results